Waystacks don walking shoes for 'Housing With Love'

Friday

Jul 14, 2017 at 8:33 AMJul 14, 2017 at 9:31 AM

By Susan Vaughn

HARWICH -- For Bernadette and Richard Waystack, the Bob Murray Housing with Love Walk across all of Cape Cod is truly a walk of love in honor of their former neighbor and friend. Murray and his team began the annual walk 25 years ago to raise awareness for affordable housing and homeless prevention.

The year before Murray’s death in 2013, Richard Waystack said, “I pushed him in a wheelchair and made the commitment that day that someone would always walk the entire length of the Cape.” That someone turned out to be the Waystacks, who are walking for the fourth straight year the 103 miles through all 15 Cape towns from Provincetown to Falmouth.

It began Monday and concludes Sunday.

The Waystacks, who live and work in Harwich, believe they may be the only people walking the entire route. Two others who have done it are the Rev. John Rice and D.J. Sullivan, but both are in their 80s now.

The couple walks to keep their promise to Murray and honor his work and keep the cause alive.

“He (Murray) did more for housing on Cape Cod than anybody,” Richard said.

One of Murrays’ greatest gifts was to get people involved and motivated, the couple said.

The Love Walk is a collaborative effort of nine Cape agencies that support affordable housing and homeless prevention, and all the donations the walkers raise go directly to benefit the people in need. The combined goal this year is $250,000.

Richard Waystack said the walks have raised a total of $4.7 million in 25 years and he would like to see it reach $5 million this year. The Waystacks are walking for the Housing Assistance Corp. where Murray was a grant writer.

As a Realtor, Richard Waystack is doing his share by asking all 2,000 realtors across the Cape for whatever they can give, and he would like to raise $10,000 from that group. He also is a vice president of a national real estate organization and is tapping that group, too.

Bernadette Waystack, an art teacher at Monomoy High School, said she gets support every year for the walk from her colleagues and students, who had a breakfast that raised $200. One student, who gave a $20 bill, must have had a special reason to do that, she said.

Monomoy High School, which serves Harwich and Chatham, has 26 homeless students, and the schools are required to provide them services, she said. She personally helped a student with housing, food and transportation after her father kicked her out of the house when she turned 18.

The housing issue “touches everybody’s life in one way or another,” she said. “People give for different reasons.”

She also uses her artwork to give back to the walk. She is selling some posters of previous walks and her notecards, with all the proceeds going to the Love Walk.

Michelle Jarusiewicz, Provincetown’s community housing specialist, said in a statement that as more homes are being bought and converted to seasonal housing, the Cape is down more than 3,000 year-round homes since 2,000.

“Finding a year-round rental is very hard and affording the rent is harder still, especially for young working families,” she said, noting “the shuffle” between winter and summer rentals.

The Waystacks average 15 miles a day, with the longest day covering more than 16 miles starting in Chatham.

The couple, and all the walkers, will stand out this weekend in their yellow shirts wearing buttons with Murray’s photo as they traverse the main roads and bike paths across the Cape. They will use social media to report their progress and they said people stop and give them money along the route.